Emma Lazarus

St. Michael’s Chapel

When the vexed hubbub of our world of gain 
Roars round about me as I walk the street, 
The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beat 
Of Toil’s incessant hammer, the fierce strain 
Of struggle hand to hand and brain to brain, 
Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat, 
The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat, 
And all at once I stand enthralled again 
Within a marble minster over-seas. 
I watch the solemn gold-stained gloom that creeps 
To kiss an alabaster tomb, where sleeps 
A lady ’twixt two knights’ stone effigies, 
And every day in dusky glory steeps 
Their sculptured slumber of five centuries.